Bianca Cook, also known as Bianca Walkden[1] (born 29 September 1991) is a Britishtaekwondo athlete and Olympian. She is a three-time World champion, twice World Grand Prix champion, four-time European champion and a double Olympic medallist.[2][3]
She represented Great Britain at 2016 Olympic Games winning a bronze medal.[4] Walkden is a triple World champion, four time European champion, and twice World Grand Prix Final champion in her division.[citation needed] In 2017 she became the first practitioner ever to win all 4 Grand Prix events in her division in a single season (having also won the one-off Grand Prix Final in London of the truncated 2016 season).[citation needed]
In May 2019, at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships, Walkden won the women's heavyweight title after Zheng Shuyin was disqualified after attaining a 20–10 lead. Faced with Zheng's subsequent inactivity, Walkden adopted the tactic of repeatedly forcing her opponent out of the ring to raise her penalty points from seven to ten, an automatic disqualification. This resulted in boos during the result announcement and medal presentation, when Zheng fell to her knees. Great Britain performance director Gary Hall took issue with her "disrespectful manner" at the presentation.[6] Walkden defended her tactics, saying: "I went out there needing to find a different way to win and a win is a win if you disqualify someone - it's not my fault."[7]
In September 2019, at Chiba, four months after winning the controversial gold medal in Manchester, Walkden was defeated 7-5 by Zheng Shuyin.[8] In October 2019 at Sofia, Zheng Shuyin again defeated Walkden by 3–2.[9]
She has been in a relationship with British-born Moldovan taekwondo fighter Aaron Cook since 2008, and the pair married in 2022. She has lived with fellow British taekwondo fighter, and double Olympic champion, Jade Jones, in Manchester, since 2010. The trio train almost every day at GB Taekwondo's National Taekwondo Centre.[3]
Jung Wan-sook (KOR)
Lynnette Love (USA)
Kao Ching-yi (TPE)
Chen Zhong (CHN)
Rosana Simón (ESP)
Anne-Caroline Graffe (FRA)
Olga Ivanova (RUS)
Bianca Walkden (GBR)
Svetlana Osipova (UZB)
Nafia Kuş (TUR)
